GeekDad: Tell us a little about the inspiration behind the No Hero seriesJonathan Wood: I like that we’re framing this in terms of “inspiration” that sounds so much better than “ripping off…”

To be honest, there are a ton of individual inspirations to the series. Some scenes are tied very specifically to particular instances (for example, No Hero has a scene in a Peruvian temple which directly draws on my love of Indiana Jones). In other cases the themes are more pervasive – if you missed the Lovecraft homage going on in No Hero then you’re probably the sort of person who needs to be reminded than you use your face to read.

But I think the overall inspiration tying the others together is my love of pulp. I want to capture the sense of adventure, and the bombast, and the sheer ridiculousness of old pulp fantasies. So when I pull on something near and dear to my heart like Hellboy or a James Rollins thriller, I’m always putting it through that filter. So when there’s a monster fight, it’s not just a monster fight. It’s a fight against a zombie T-Rex. And not only that but it’s a zombie T-Rex summoned by a time travelling Russian cyborg wizard. That sort of thing…

GD: Do you consider video games an influence? If so, which ones?JW: I’m happy to be influenced by anything I can get my hands on, and video games certainly form a large part of my cultural diet. From a long time back I can remember the Final Fantasy games opened up a whole world of non-Western fantasy tropes for me, which I hadn’t been exposed to before. And more recently games like Fallout and Mass Effect have really highlighted the power of moral decision-making in stories.

Also, it’s impossible to not have video games influence your lexicon of action scenes. They’re so cinematic these days. I suspect there’s a lot of subconscious influence in how I choreograph my action that comes from games like Gears of War, and God of War, and… well anything ending in War really.

GD: Top ten action flicks?
JW: God, I love this question…

OK, the first two are obvious to me. Die Hard and The Matrix. Those movies bookended the 90s and are still massively influential. Die Hard taught us that its fun to watch our hero get pounded on. The Matrix taught us how to mash genres and styles, and how just to look damn cool.

If I’m going to throw out The Matrix, then I have to mention Ghost in the Shell, which it relies on heavily. Just a wonderful stylish action movie, which is also willing to break from the ass-kickery to deal with quotes from philosophers and literary theorists. What’s not to love?

And now I’m in anime territory, so Akira needs a shout out as well. Epic in its scope, its ambition, it’s over-the-top violence. Just a cool ambitious movie that hits so many right notes, it’s hard to care that it confuses the crap out of me.

Aliens is another personal favorite. It captures the creepy weirdness of the first movie, but ratchets up the kick ass to 11.

It would be a crime to list action movies and not mention James Bond. I’m not sure he’s my favorite Bond, but I think Timothy Dalton may have done my favorite Bond movies. He hits the nostalgia buttons just right. And of his short run, I did love License to Kill especially. Those films capture the adventure, and the fun of the films, but ground them with a grittiness that fakes realism. It’s artful.

I’ve already mentioned Indiana Jones, but I want to call it out again. Especially The Last Crusade, which is my personal favorite. Harrison Ford and Sean Connery? It’s like the axis of awesome.

Romancing the Stone is possibly a little low on action, and maybe more of an adventure movie, but I’m keeping it here anyway, because it’s awesome.

To make up for the potential action light inclusion, I’m throwing in 300. Frank Miller is misogynistic, and obsessed with the idea of “real men,” and the movie has way too many man nipples for any regular piece of celluloid, but the movie is just an outstanding testament to testosterone.

That’s 9, right?

There are so many movies to put into the last spot… Maybe something less well known. The Brotherhood of the Wolf is a french movie with kung fu and sword fights and Monica Bellucci in a corset.

GD: How are you a GeekDad?
JW: Well, I have offspring, so that’s half of that. As for how I’m a geek… You’re giving away my fantasy novels aren’t you? But I have been hardcore geeking since my childhood Transformers obsession. And I started roleplaying at about nine… I think my credentials are good.

GD: Scariest Lovecraftian monster?
JW: I feel like, definitionally, it should be Cthulhu. The whole dead god dreaming thing, tentacles coming out of his face. But for some reason, and I have a hard time putting my finger on it, I have always been a big fan of Nyarlathotep. He’s just a small Egyptian dude, really, but his effect is so devastating. There’s something about him that is just absolutely terrifying.

GD: Your personal weapon of choice against it?
JW: Well… the way Lovecraft set up the game he rigged it so you can’t win. These are unspeakable horrors that steal you sanity. There’s nothing you can do.

That said, if it doesn’t really matter what you take up against it, then surely some sort of nerdy uber-weapon should be used just for fun. If there’s a way to rig a shotgun to a chainsaw – I want that.

GD: Which books are you reading this summer?
JW: Just to confirm my geek cred… I just finished reading the excellent The Hammer and The Blade by Paul S. Kemp, which was a big throwback to the fantasy of my early teenage years. Just a ton of fun. So now I am following that up with a copy of The Icewind Dale Trilogy (all three books in one!) by R. A. Salvatore. I’ve never read his work before. And I’m also always listening to an audiobook – that’s easy for me to fit into my schedule – so Glen Cook’s The Black Company is in rotation right now.

Jonathan Wood’s debut novel, No Hero, introduced the world to Arthur Wallace, the MI37 agent who dared ask: “What Would Kurt Russell Do?” You might recall a few months ago that we serialized Jonathan’s story, The Nyarlathotep Event. Well, today we’re thrilled to be offering digital copies of No Hero and the just-released sequel, Yesterday’s Hero, free for the next week. That’s right! Free! Pick up a copy in the links below.

UPDATE: The books are no longer available free, but you can still show your love by visiting Barnes & Noble and Amazon for both books (below), and visiting Jonathan’s own website.

“The book Lovecraft might have written if he had a sense of humor and watched too many Kurt Russell movies… Recommended.”
- The Mad Hatter Bookshelf and Review; Honorable Mention, Urban Fantasy Novel of the Year

“Sometimes sheer bravado and break-neck pacing can lift up a potential cliché into something more. In the case of Jonathan Wood’s first novel, No Hero, the author has created a riff on supernatural noir that’s rollicking good fun and acknowledges its debts with good humor.”
- Jeff Vandermeer, Omnivoracious, Amazon.com

About Yesterday’s Hero:

Another day. Another zombie T-Rex to put down. All part of the routine for Arthur Wallace and MI37—the government department devoted to defending Britain from threats magical, supernatural, extraterrestrial, and generally odd.

Except a zombie T-Rex is only the first of the problems about to trample, slavering and roaring, through Arthur’s life. Before he can say, “but didn’t I save the world yesterday?” a new co-director at MI37 is threatening his job, middle-aged Russian cyborg wizards are threatening his life, and his co-workers are threatening his sanity.

As Arthur struggles to unravel a plot to re-enact the Chernobyl disaster in England’s capital, he must not only battle foreign occult science but also struggle to keep the trust of his team. Events spiral out of control, friendships fray, and loyalties are tested to their breaking point.

Jonathan Wood is an Englishman in New York. Yesterday’s Hero is his second novel. He can be found online at cogsandneurons.com and on Twitter as @thexmedic.

For the past two weeks, we’ve serialized author Jonathan Wood’s short, “The Nyarlathotep Event” here at GeekDad, and we’re finally at the last installment. This story is set in the same world as Wood’s debut novel, No Hero, the Lovecraftian urban fantasy that dares to ask, what would Kurt Russell do? The first chapter of No Hero is available for free, and the novel is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other independent book stores.

If you missed the first nine installments, check them out here, first:

Note: This installment contains several words that some might not consider appropriate for young readers.

The Nyarlathotep Event by Jonathan Wood: Case File #10 Rematch

Fear. It’s easy enough to be ruled by it. There are a lot of things to be afraid of these days. Terrorists. Bioweapons. New Lady Gaga songs.

My personal issue with fear is a little more immediate, though. It is seven foot tall, wears red robes, and goes by the name of Nyarlathotep.

And I’m in his citadel, in his dimension, and in this moment, I realize I probably should have brought my gun. My best friend, Clyde, is a government-paid magician, but he appears to have disappeared into madness.

Crap.

Up until now it hasn’t been too much of a problem. Until now, I’ve been able to take advantage of this being a reality other than ours, and just summoned things by concentrating hard. Apparently now I’m in Nyarlathotep’s actual house, that’s not an option. Not that I don’t try it. I imagine swords, guns, knives, bombs, even Donkey Kong on the off chance I can catch him off guard.

Yes, we’re serializing author Jonathan Wood’s short, “The Nyarlathotep Event” here at GeekDad. It’s set in the same world as his debut novel, No Hero, the Lovecraftian urban fantasy that dares to ask, what would Kurt Russell do? The first chapter of No Hero is available for free, and the novel is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other independent book stores.

If you missed the first eight installments, check them out here, first:

Note: This installment contains several words that some might not consider appropriate for young readers.

The Nyarlathotep Event by Jonathan Wood: Case File #9 Citadel

As citadels that are the embodiment of sheer terror go, Nyarlathotep’s is pretty imposing.

I mean, to be fair, he benefits from having built it in a nightmare reality based on humanity’s collective fears where things like gravity and physics are apparently spongier than I’m used to, but still, he deserves points for effort. Blood colored spires, statues that actually scream, non-Euclidean angles — he went the whole nine yards.

Still going to kill the bastard, of course.

I lower Clyde, co-worker, friend, and currently dribblingly insane person off my shoulders. I check my watch. If time obeys the same rules here as back home I’ve got about twelve minutes to get this done. Time to take some shortcuts.

Fortunately, the best thing about a nightmare reality is that nightmare rules apply. I concentrate, sprout wings, and take to the air.

Yes, we’re serializing author Jonathan Wood’s short, “The Nyarlathotep Event” here at GeekDad for the next two weeks. It’s set in the same world as his debut novel, No Hero, the Lovecraftian urban fantasy that dares to ask, what would Kurt Russell do? The first chapter of No Hero is available for free, and the novel is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other independent book stores.

If you missed the first seven installments, check them out here, first:

Note: This installment contains several words that some might not consider appropriate for young readers.

The Nyarlathotep Event by Jonathan Wood: Case File #8 Interrogation

I never thought I’d say it, but once you get used to a dimension of fear and chaos, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Yes, it’s driven my partner, Clyde, insane, and yes, it does keep trying to kill me with more and more depraved horrors, but, well it could be worse.

Take the field of flying knives I have to traverse. Blades whirl, shearing life from plants, small rodents, the odd offensive-looking rock. But a little concentration on my part, and I manifest a titanium steel umbrella and, with Clyde balanced on my shoulder, I cross the place in relatively safety.

Nightmare logic.

And when I reach a river of blood leeches—each creature a foot long, each with a spine-filled maw reaching for me—I just think hard and then I have wings. Clyde and I sail over them easy as blinking.

Seriously, I’m like the Green bloody Lantern in this reality. It’s awesome.

Really the only serious fly in the ointment is that if I don’t find its ruler, Nyarlathotep in the next fifteen minutes or so, all of regular reality is going to be permanently buggered. And I have no idea where I’m going.

Fortunately I’ve always been more of a beta male, so stopping to ask for directions isn’t a serious dilemma. If only I could stop people trying to kill me long enough to ask.

I finally strike gold in a castle that drips gore and is chock-full of tiny gremlin-like creatures armed with stilettos. An old-school suit of armor makes maneuvering difficult but renders their attempted stabbings utterly ineffective. After a few attempts I finally seize one around the midriff and heft it to eye height. It kicks and spits with its full eight inch frame. Really, if it wasn’t so full of bile it’d be quite adorable.

“I’m looking for Nyarlathotep,” I inform it.

It lunges for my eyes, hurling its blades at the grills in my armored mask. I flinch back and fling it away. Possibly a little too hard. It hits a wall and becomes an ugly stain.

I keep the next one further from my face.

“Which way to Nyarlathotep?”

It suggests some awful things I should do to my mother.

“I’m not a violent man,” I tell it, “but I can apparently crush you like an insect.”

More profanities follow. Small he may be. Easily intimidated he is not.

“Please?” I venture.

Further obscenities. And then my jaw starts to tremble, because all of this abuse is delivered by a voice so high it’s barely in human hearing range. And then I laugh. It doesn’t feel at all appropriate as chunks of viscera rain down the castle walls, but I’m starting to become immune to the shock horror aspects of this place.

As soon as the sound is out of me, the gremlin shrieks and does its best to claw its way out of my hand. I’m so shocked I stop laughing and stare at it. It recovers slowly. I chuckle. It slams its body backwards, wrestling an arm free to cover its ears.

“Nyarlathotep now, or I bust a gut all over you,” I tell it. Not the most threatening thing I’ve ever said, but it has the desired effect. The thing grimaces and screeches, and jabbers, and around me the walls of reality flex and then-

I stand (and Clyde whimpers) on a cliff overlooking a barren, dusty plain. Rising from the center, like red wax dripping toward the sky, is a many-spired citadel.

“Nyarlathotep,” the gremlin gibbers at me. “Nyarlathotep!” Looks like the sort of place an extradimensional avatar of fear and chaos would call home. I nod my thanks to the gremlin and then throw it over the edge of the cliff.

Seriously, the murderous bastard could have brought us a little closer.

The excitement continues! Yes, we’re serializing author Jonathan Wood’s short, “The Nyarlathotep Event” here at GeekDad for the next two weeks. It’s set in the same world as his debut novel, No Hero, the Lovecraftian urban fantasy that dares to ask, what would Kurt Russell do? The first chapter of No Hero is available for free, and the novel is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other independent book stores.

Note: This installment contains several words that some might not consider appropriate for young readers.

The Nyarlathotep Event by Jonathan Wood: Case File #7, The I in Team

Every time I fight unspeakable horrors from alternate realities, I am reminded of the value of teamwork. Say, for example, that I am forced into a dimension of fear and madness to act as the government-sponsored assassin of its avatar, Nyarlathotep, then back-up is about my favorite thing in the world.

So now, forced into a dimension of fear and madness and acting as the government-sponsored assassin of its avatar, Nyarlathotep, it’s really not an awesome time for my partner to lose his shit.

But Clyde Marcus Bradley, MI37 field agent, geek, cat-lover, and bloody wizard is lying on the ground whimpering, while I’m stuck with defending us from a reality gone awry.

Space ripples and changes about us. Maybe we are traveling, some dream logic carrying us along like a current through rooms of living flesh, of bone, of chitin, rooms threatening to drown us, rooms I cannot bring myself to describe.

I can feel it slipping in behind my eyes. After-images of travesties that clamber into my brain and breed. I lose track of what is real in a place where everything is unreal. And I need to pull back. I need to get him good and grounded. But there is no ground. There is just Clyde, just me. Circling. Falling. Falling again.

I land. A plain. Some tundra. A dust cloud on the horizon. I pick myself up. And Clyde is still there, right next to me. And I know something big is coming. I just need to get to him, to get us both away. I start to run, but dream rules apply. My limbs do not obey me. Each step is a tottering nightmare of minimal increments.

And the cloud. The cloud is fast, is impossible in its speed. Closing. Closing. And in the dust I get an impression of hooves, of horns, of teeth.

“Clyde,” I yell. “Clyde!” I’m begging him. He has to help. I was never built to be the man alone.

Finally I am at his side, I slap him, shake him. His head lolls. His eyes roll. “Come back to me,” I whisper. The cloud comes closer.

He is not going to snap out of it. He is gone. I am alone.

I gather him up in my arms. I stagger. Another step of glacial slowness. The cloud’s thunder shakes this world.

And it would be so easy to slip away, to give in, to let the madness take me, to be consumed by this reality.

But there is a home, a place to get back to, friends and family. And Kurt Russell movie marathons. And bacon.

And screw this. Clyde and I are getting out of here with Nyarlathotep’s head on a bloody platter.

I turn. I face the cloud. It’s almost on me now. Massive. Thundering.

Just a cloud, I tell myself. Just dust and wind. I don’t know the rules of this place, but I know the rules of dreams. Of nightmares. And I pray that they apply.

The cloud breaks over me. Just dust. Just wind. It scours my cheeks. Hoofbeats crash around me. Just echoes. Just the boom of the wind.

And then peace. Then a breeze. I open my ways. The cloud has blown away. I still hold Clyde.

Reality slips. I stand in a corridor full of doors. I can hear scampering about and above me. And I know I can hear the rats in the walls.

I am still afraid. I would still favor flight over fight. But fight I will. Because I can face my fear. Because now, Nyarlathotep, you get bloody yours.

As you’ve likely noticed by now, we’re serializing author Jonathan Wood’s short, “The Nyarlathotep Event” here at GeekDad for the next two weeks, It’s set in the same world as his debut novel, No Hero, the Lovecraftian urban fantasy that dares to ask, what would Kurt Russell do? The first chapter of No Hero is available for free, and the novel is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other independent book stores.

If you missed the first five delicious installments, check them out here:

Note: This installment contains several words that some might not consider appropriate for young readers.

The Nyarlathotep Event: Case File #6, Sweet Dreams

Christ Church College, Oxford England

Some days I really get the vastness of the universe. I’m tiny. It’s big. I don’t matter. I get it.

Then, some days, you save the world—you know, for example you close an interdimentsional portal infecting the world with madness, kill an avatar of fear called Nyarlathotep when armed only with a bit of two-by-four—and you think the world should really pay more attention.

But no. Instead, Oxford remains a twisted fun house version of itself and the populace remains howling at the moon.

Clyde—my spell-slinging partner in government-sponsored world saving—and I exchange a look. Clyde puts a finger to his ear.

“Tabby,” he says to our handler back at MI37, “any chance you know what’s going on?”

I give him the finger because I’m not at my most eloquent in the face of certain death.

“Also,” Tabitha adds, “top him, get back, and close the thing in thirty minutes or less. Otherwise permanent world buggering. OK?”

Perfect. Just bloody perfect.

“Tick tock.”

I brace myself and step through.

Another time. Another place.

As it turns out, humanity is afraid of pretty weird stuff. At least that’s the only reason I can think of that a giant version of Snuggles the teddy bear is trying to kill me with a meat cleaver.

We’re in something that looks like an airport terminal. Stepping through the portal put me six feet above the floor. With a feeling like slipping out of jello, I fell to the floor. And there was Snuggles. Six feet tall, eye buttons dangling on threadbare strings, a cleaver the size of my chest balanced in one hand.

“Passport!” he giggles and takes another swing at my head. I duck. He buries the blade into a cement pillar. He tugs it free with an adorable chuckle. A stitch bursts in his arm at the effort. Stuffing spills loose.

This is typically the point at which I cower and wait for Clyde to sling a spell that makes him seem more like a walking missile launcher than most people you meet. Except, when I look over, Clyde is sitting with his hands over his eyes, screaming.

Seriously? This is Clyde’s personal hell? Really?

Snuggles takes another swipe at my head. I duck, roll, come up behind him. Snuggles wrestles the cleaver out the floor. Another stitch pops while he giggles madly.

And I am not particularly good at this whole fighting thing, but at times like this you do what you have to do.

I kick at his loose arm. More stuffing spills. I kick again.

Snuggles looks back at me, his cotton line drawn up in a smile. “Playtime is over,” he says as sweetly as can be. He heaves on the cleaver. I kick one last time.

Another stitch pops. Snuggles heaves. The whole joint gives way. He staggers back uttering things no beloved children’s character should ever say, still laughing between the curses.

At this point, opportunity and the cleaver are the same thing so I grab them both. I stagger under the massive weight. Snuggles’ detached arm still clings to the cleaver. I swing madly, spin round and round.

And then the blade buries itself in Snuggles’ gut, and he chuckles one last time and lies still.

I stand up sweating hard. And now would be a great time for me to snap Clyde out of it. Because I can see the Care Bears coming and they have machine guns.

As you’ve likely noticed by now, we’re serializing author Jonathan Wood’s short, “The Nyarlathotep Event” here at GeekDad for the next two weeks, It’s set in the same world as his debut novel, No Hero, the Lovecraftian urban fantasy that dares to ask, what would Kurt Russell do? The first chapter of No Hero is available for free, and the novel is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other independent book stores.

Note: This installment contains several words that some might not consider appropriate for young readers.

The Nyarlathotep Event: Case File #5, Nyarlathotep

Christ Church College, Oxford England

One thing I’ve always liked about Kurt Russell movies is that they end.

That sounds wrong…

I like that they conclude. Evil is defeated. The good guy wins. A sunset is ridden into.

In real life you face down a horde of angry cultists, close an interdimensional portal, high-five your spell-slinging partner, and then you find out there’s a seven-foot tall avatar of fear and chaos who’s all pissed about it and manifested behind you when you weren’t looking.

We’re serializing author Jonathan Wood’s short, “The Nyarlathotep Event” here at GeekDad for the next two weeks, It’s set in the same world as his debut novel, No Hero, the Lovecraftian urban fantasy that dares to ask, what would Kurt Russell do? The first chapter of No Hero is available for free, and the novel is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other independent book stores.

Note: This installment contains several words that some might not consider appropriate for young readers.

The Nyarlathotep Event: Case File #4, Portal

Oxford, England. Not a good day.

Some days, I think, I really need to ask for a transfer. You get told you’re going into a department called MI37, and you think, oh that sounds cloak-and-dagger exciting. They charge you with defending the realm from all things supernatural and tentacle-y, and you think, well that could be exciting.

Then you find you find yourself in the middle of Christ Church College facing a pack of yellow-robed cultists standing around a bubbling rip in reality.

We’re serializing author Jonathan Wood’s short, “The Nyarlathotep Event” here at GeekDad for the next two weeks, It’s set in the same world as his debut novel, No Hero., the Lovecraftian urban fantasy that dares to ask, what would Kurt Russell do? The first chapter of No Hero is available for free, and the novel is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other independent book stores.

The Nyarlathotep Event: Case File #3, Countdown

“Derrière. To Christ Church College. Five minutes or less. Otherwise you’re responsible for the end of the world.” Tabitha, my handler and MI37′s resident cheerleader, sets the ticking clock just in case my day wasn’t going badly enough.

It had been a simple plan. Go to the theater. Make sure the performer really is an interdimensional avatar of fear and chaos. Shoot him.

All in a day’s work for Agent Arthur Wallace.

Except now I’m chasing the bastard through Oxford transformed. Nyarlathotep — the aforementioned avatar — has vomited up the citizenry’s collective fears and given the place a good basting. Architecture spirals out of control. Streets twist back in recursive loops. Buildings teeter and leer.

Oh, and everybody’s gone mad. The insane cherry on the lunacy cake.

Ten minutes ago

Clyde — MI37′s geek and spell-slinger — passes me a plastic earbud. “Tabitha,” he says. I plug it in. Because who doesn’t want a running job evaluation from a committed misanthrope?